Matthewisms, BYU Game, Field Trip, Canning, Racing, Soccer

Lots of pictures of our comings and goings.  First off lately our life has been full of soccer.  With having 4 kids in soccer all at the same time Aaron and I have to divide and conquer quite a few nights of the week--Monday through Thursday to be exact.  Aaron signed up to be Noah's team coach for this season.  However, Noah just isn't all that interested in soccer.  He can be a little stinker on the field.  Aaron does try to help him whenever he is interested for a few seconds.  Noah did get to throw a ball in with Aaron's help when it went out of bounds during the game:

 This is what Noah is usually doing, though (he's the one laying down on the field during the game):

 He even was laying down on the job when he was goalie and let the other team score two goals.  Oh well what can you do?!  He was goalie another time and got his foot stuck in the net on the outside of the goal and let a few more goals go by him during another game, too.  Good thing he has a patient coach.

Sarah likes to play soccer:

 Josh likes to play, too.  He is easy to spot because he is a head taller than everyone else on the field.  He's going to be a tall kiddo!  He's the one in the bright yellow jersey:

It's weird only having one kid home during the day.  It's so quiet.  Since I only have one at home I decided to take advantage of it.  We went to library story time last week.  We haven't been able to go for a few years because I've either had too many kids to manage or I had to pick up a kindergartner at the same time as story time.  Noah can be a little stinker for me during Sunbeams so I was curious to see how he'd be during story time.  He did great.  By the end I was wondering if I had the real Noah with me or an impostor.

 When everyone got home from school we got started on homework.  After a few minutes I realized it was awfully quiet in the house so I went to see why.  I was surprised to see Noah and Matthew asleep on the couch.

I let them sleep for a bit while everyone finished their homework and then some.  Matthew only cat napped, however, Noah slept for three hours.  I was worried I was going to have problems with him either going to bed or waking up really early in the morning after having such a long nap.  I woke him up for dinner at 6:30 then put him to bed a little after 7.  He slept all the way until 7 am the next morning.  Wow!  He must have been a tired boy!

Last weekend I had a chance to run in the Dirty Dash 10k race at Soldier Hollow with my friend, Erin.  It was so much fun!  It is basically a 6.2 mile long obstacle course with lots of mud!  It was great!  Here's our before picture before we got our 'mud masks' or our faces covered with mud from the obstacles.

 Here's the after race pics:

 We had mud everywhere!!  It was really a very big workout, too.  I could hardly move the next few days afterward because all my muscles were so sore.  Teaching the Sunbeam class the next day at church was interesting.....Anyway after the race they had cold showers you could hose off part of the mud with, but the water was so cold you didn't want to spend very much time hosing off.  Here's the post ice cold pseudo shower pics:

 We went and grabbed lunch after at Dairy Keen in Heber despite being a bit muddy still.  It was a yummy and very fun day despite my sore muscles.  I can't wait to do it again next year!  I do have to mention that when I came home and actually showered in my own shower I was surprised at how much mud, grass and rocks I washed down the drain.  Who knew where all that was hiding?!

Saturday evening I asked Aaron to go out and pick a few tomatoes for dinner.  This is what he came back with from our garden:

 Wowza!!  I only wanted a few tomatoes not two bushels and other various things!!  I really didn't want to process tomatoes that soon, but I didn't have a choice after he picked all that!  I was so not wanting to do that because my body was so sore from the race, too.  Anyway, luckily my Mom volunteered to come over and we made salsa all day Monday.  I was so thankful for the help!  We got a ton of bottles (30 quarts and 32 pints) as you can see:

 I think it is safe to say I will be set for salsa for quite some time!!

Noah is taking his 'showing off his muscles' thing very seriously.   I love his strong muscle face:

 I didn't sleep very well last night (woke up at 3 am and couldn't go back to sleep) so Aaron let me lay down for a power nap this afternoon.  However, this is what I woke up to:

 I am not sure how washable these markers are, but I will find out soon enough.  Hmmmm....maybe Aaron needs to pay attention to this kids activities a little more closely--haha!

The cows behind our house have gotten used to the sound of the mower and come to the fence every time it starts up.  Josh dumps all the grass over the fence and the cows eat it up.  They love it.  It is funny to see them come running:

 Noah had his first preschool field trip this past Thursday to the West Point Fire Station.  I, however, didn't know about this particular field trip instead of class until I went to drop Noah off at school and saw there wasn't anyone there.  That's when I noticed the sign saying there was no class due to the field trip at 10:30 am.  I really should have looked more closely at their preschool calendar!  Doh!!  Anyway, that wasn't good because I was set to volunteer in Daniel's classroom for the first time at 10:40am.  Double DOH!!  Luckily, I was able to get a hold of Aaron at work, which is a miracle in and of itself, and he was able to come home for lunch at that time and take Noah on his field trip so I could go volunteer.  Phew! Crisis averted!  I love that Aaron loves to be a hands on dad, has a flexible schedule and works 15 minutes away from home for such emergencies!!  Here's Noah's preschool class:

 Here's Mr. Cheeser:

 Aaron said that Noah was so well behaved during the whole field trip.  Aaron said he didn't say a word and walked around with his arms folded the whole time.  What?!

 All I could think was Miss Sarah and Teacher Grandma (his preschool teachers) need to come and teach his Sunbeam class for me because Noah is not like that at church!

All the kids got to climb in the fire truck:

 Again who is this kid that's folding his arms?  I don't recognize him--haha!  Let's just say this is so not the Noah who is in my Sunbeam class at church!

 During the summer we came into some free hair cut coupons.  We saved them to get all the boys their back to school hair cuts.  Since I only cut their hair this was a whole new experience for them.  Here's Noah:

 Josh and Matthew:

 They looked pretty sharp afterward.  It was funny to watch them get the professional treatment that they don't get from me at home.

Our garden has been pretty good this year.  It got overrun with a few cantaloupe plants so we were surprised to trip over this huge watermelon that we hadn't even seen when we were walking through the garden:

 Unfortunately, we aren't very good at telling when watermelons are ripe so when we cut into this one it wasn't very pink and had a few brown spots in it.  Later on we found another watermelon about this big, too, but it had the same problem.  Oh well I guess we can always try again with watermelon next year hopefully with a little better result.

Last Thursday Aaron found some cheap BYU football tickets.  He decided to take Sarah, Josh and Daniel with him.  It was a fun night for everyone.  They all got to meet Cosmo:

 The game started at 7:00 pm and went until 10:30pm.  Sarah faded for a bit during the 3rd quarter because she was so tired:

 Aaron didn't mind the Sarahbug snuggles.  Here's the smiley guys during halftime:

 They got down to Provo early and got to participate in the pregame party.  There was a pizza dough throwing station that Josh and Daniel tried their hands at.

 They didn't do too well, but it was fun to try:

 On the way down to the game they stopped off to get a quick burger.  Daniel was able to try his very first cheeseburger ever.  He loved it:

So, in preparation for the Ogden Temple Rededication, Aaron took the boys in to get interviewed by the Bishop so they could attend.  Here's how Matthew's interview went according to Aaron:
Bishop Chapman: Matthew are you honest?
Matthew (looking warily at me): Most of the time.
Bishop Chapman: Matthew, are you mean to your brothers and sister?
Matthew: Only when they deserve it.
Bishop Chapman: Matthew, do you pay your Tithing?
Matthew: I'm not a real big fan of tithing.
Bishop Chapman: Why not?
Matthew: I like to spend my money.

Somehow the Bishop kept a straight face throughout this whole conversation.  Aaron was struggling to contain his laughter.  The Bishop was nice and took a few minutes to teach Matthew about the importance and blessings of tithing.

Speaking of Matthew being outspoken (pun intended), the other day Aaron took Matthew to a Stake Priesthood Meeting.  The meeting was packed and everyone was bunched together on the pews.  The first speaker got up and began his talk.  It was boring.  Matthew spoke up not in a whisper and said, "Dad, I don't like this meeting!"  Finally (after the meeting went overtime about 30 minutes), the Stake President got up to speak.  Matthew again 'whispered' but not really, "Dad, this better be the last speaker!"

Then, the other day in Young Mens, the Bishop was teaching the lesson.  Matthew (ever aware of the Church schedule), informed the Bishop at 4:00 (the time church ends) in front of everyone, "Bishop you need to wrap it up.  You are out of time."  The Bishop responded, "It's not time yet." Matthew replied back in front of everyone again, "Oh, but it is, Bishop.  It is."  The Bishop patiently told him that the meeting is over when the Bishop says it's over.  Matthew seemed satisfied with that answer.  Oh man that kid keeps things interesting!  Just like a few weeks ago when he was passing the sacrament.  They give him the same section every week so he knows what and where he needs to be.  However, he ended passing his section a bit earlier than everyone else and didn't quite know what to do.  So he when over and started talking with the bishop during the sacrament.  Oh man Aaron and I didn't know whether we should get up and get him or let him be.  Luckily the bishop redirected him back to his spot in line to wait for the other deacons to finish passing the bread to their own respective sections.  Gotta love Matthew.  He certainly keeps us on our toes for sure!!

I promise that we try to teach our kids to be respectful.  It just doesn't sink in sometimes.

In speaking of Matthew he had a special needs dance he was able to go to this week.  They got all the special needs kids from the area schools and bussed them all over to one location to have a dance.  Matthew didn't say too much about it, but I sure wish I could have been a fly on the wall there.  Matthew said he danced with a few people, but mostly the teachers.